there was reality to face. A job to be done. A mission we were both committed to. It was heart-wrenching when I finally got off of him and slipped my clothes back on. The moment would be forever committed to my memory, keeping me going when everything else got scary, dangerous, hopeless. I would return to that moment when it was just him and I and for a brief time, nothing in the world mattered. No one could hurt us. It was just love and it was all we needed.
When we were both dressed – and still partly splattered with mud – we resumed our duty. We brought out the compasses and started walking again, heading northeast. I felt like I left something behind on that forest floor. The us I hoped we could return to.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
It was dusk when we saw the first lights in the jungle. At first I was certain that it was a pair of animal eyes, maybe a panther, watching our every move. But the eyes turned into several eyes and the forest began to open up and suddenly the lights belonged to a walled fence and a pathway and the roof of a sprawling mansion.
We had found it.
This was Travis’s compound.
“Now what?” I asked Camden as we stopped a football field’s length away, sticking close to the trees for cover. We couldn’t really see anything because of the high stone wall that went on forever, hiding the mansion and who knows what else behind it.
“You don’t happen to have a pair of binoculars in there?” he asked, gently taking the backpack off my shoulders and opening it. “Maybe night vision goggles?”
“No. Javier had them.”
“Of course he did,” he said. He sighed and rubbed his hand on his face. He looked up at the trees. “Well, we won’t have any idea of what we’re dealing with if we can’t see it. You good at climbing trees?”
I smiled. “World’s best date palm climber right here.”
A weird flash came across his face, as if something dawned on him. “I had a dream about you and I last week. We were in high school and climbed to the top of one of your uncle’s date palms. There was a fire coming across the valley.”
“Did we get burned?” I asked, reaching for his hand and pulling him toward me.
He smiled sadly. “We did. But at least we were together.” He cupped my face in his hands and my eyes closed at his touch. “My Ellie. My beautiful girl. I will burn for you. I will die for you.”
My heart skipped and burst, overflowing until my chest was radiating with heat, love, peace. I turned my face and kissed his palm. “You give me life, Camden. Death doesn’t seem so scary after that.”
He pulled me close and kissed my forehead. “How about we climb this tree, see if we can get a good look before it gets dark?”
I squeezed his hand and looked up at the tree closest to us. Sure, on the date farm I had a ladder to help me but the way this tree’s branches were spaced out it was like a ladder anyway.
Camden gave me a boost up to the lowest branches but after that it was easy to climb. The only problem was the ants I saw crawling on the trunk. I hoped they weren’t the really poisonous ones that Dom had warned us about.
We paused about half way up, at a part where the branches separated a bit and we could see out.
Jesus.
Travis’s compound was a lot bigger than I had thought – it was like a palace. On the other side of the wall there was the main building, the mansion that seemed to go on forever, wings and levels and sections. There was a courtyard in the front with fountains, a huge pool among landscaped gardens, as well as a few other houses that were scattered about. Golf carts littered the manicured lawns, lit pathways snaked their way through outdoor sculptures and statues. There was also a helicopter pad with a helicopter resting on it.
“I can’t really see that far,” Camden said, squinting at the distance. “What does it look like?”
“It looks like he’s trying to recreate Versailles,” I said honestly.
“What about people? Are there guards?”
There had to be. I tried to take it all in, paying attention to the details. There was a man driving a golf cart down a path, heavily armed of course. It looked like two guards were stationed by the front door, talking to someone I didn’t recognize.
“There are some,” I told him, relaying what I saw.
“Could be more, too. How about getting over the fence?”
My eyes followed it, searching for an opening. “It’s too tall to scale, I think. And I don’t have my grappling hook. There are a bunch of trees in the left corner though … if we kept walking straight we’d hit them. I think we could maybe climb over the fence that way, so long as the branches can hold us up.”
“You’d at least be able to go over,” he said.
I eyed him fearfully. “I can’t do this alone.”
“You won’t,” he said. “I promise. We’ll do it together. We’ll find a way.”
“So when we get in, then what?”
He shrugged. “Get Gus and your mother. They are there. We will find them. You can break in. I have faith in your B and E skills.” He smiled for a second. How far away that seemed now, how insane I was to break into Camden’s house and rob him. That seemed like a lifetime ago.
My cheeks flushed with embarrassment. “I can get us in. Then I guess we case the joint and see who we can find.”
“I wish it’s going to be that simple. The odds are against us, you know.”
“I think the odds have always been against us, Camden. Don’t you?”
He grinned. “You’re right about that. Okay. If that’s the plan, then that’s the plan. Let’s go get Gus and your mother.”
I nodded and was about to head back down the tree when I remembered something.
“You said something about a big picture the other day,” I noted. “What did you mean?”
“When did I say that?”
“In the hotel room. You said the bigger picture is bigger than we know.”
“You don’t know?”
I worried about the look in Camden’s eyes. His brow was pinched together, eyes sullen, almost sad. I shook my head.
“Ben,” he said gently. “I need my son.”
A heavy brick was placed on my heart. Of course, Ben. His son. He’d barely mentioned what happened to him with Sophia. It must have been killing him to not have him. I’d been so wrapped up in Gus and my mother, in Javier and in Travis, that I’d forgotten all about his little boy. Camden had been suffering in silence all this time, knowing we were being pulled one way when his son was the other.
“We’ll get him back,” I told him.
He nodded grimly. “I hope so. I can’t … I can’t let him stay with her. Not after what happened. You don’t know how hard it was for me to leave him.”
I smiled sadly, feeling pinched with guilt. “I can imagine. I’m sorry you had to come for me.”
His face fell. “Oh, Ellie. No.” He reached over and kissed me. “I don’t regret coming to get you. I had to. I didn’t have a choice. I was wanted … I couldn’t have gone to get Ben without being caught. I would have been put away. And then what would have happened? I never would have seen him again. Never would have seen you again. I had to come for you. And then, I promised myself that when I had you safe, we’d come back for him.” He swallowed hard, his blue eyes watering. “We are getting out of this alive. We are getting my son back. I don’t care what it takes.”
His pain was breaking my heart. “I will help you do everything and anything. You’ll get Ben. You’ll be the father you weren’t allowed to be before.”
He nodded. I hope he believed me. Camden McQueen deserved to have all his wrongs righted.
